A Photocatalytic Active Adsorbent for Gas Cleaning in a Fixed Bed Reactor

Efficient photocatalysis for gas cleaning purposes requires a large accessible, illuminated active surface in a simple and compact reactor. Conventional concepts use powdered catalysts, which are nontransparent. Hence a uniform distribution of light is difficult to be attained. Our approach is based...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Peter Pucher, Rabah Azouani, Andrei Kanaev, Gernot Krammer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2008-01-01
Series:International Journal of Photoenergy
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2008/759736
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Summary:Efficient photocatalysis for gas cleaning purposes requires a large accessible, illuminated active surface in a simple and compact reactor. Conventional concepts use powdered catalysts, which are nontransparent. Hence a uniform distribution of light is difficult to be attained. Our approach is based on a coarse granular, UV-A light transparent, and highly porous adsorbent that can be used in a simple fixed bed reactor. A novel sol-gel process with rapid micro mixing is used to coat a porous silica substrate with TiO2-based nanoparticles. The resulting material posses a high adsorption capacity and a photocatalytic activity under UV-A illumination (PCAA = photocatalytic active adsorbent). Its photocatalytic performance was studied on the oxidation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in a fixed bed reactor setup in continuous and discontinuous operation modes. Continuous operation resulted in a higher conversion rate due to less slip while discontinuous operation is superior for a total oxidation to CO2 due to a user-defined longer residence time.
ISSN:1110-662X
1687-529X